The Awakening
by CloverX11
Summary: The Winter Soldier makes a mistake by going after the Black Widow instead of finishing off Steve Rogers. By doing so, it's a cat and mouse game, frustrating the Winter Soldier, and eventually making him wonder who he really is in the end. This story take place when Steve and Natasha battle the Winter Soldier on the highway in CA2.
**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything related to Marvel's Captain America.

 **Warning:** This story is rated M for violence and soon to be adult hot situations...wink! ;)

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Natasha fired her pistols fast and steady at the freeway overpass just above her, leaving the deafening sounds of gunfire ringing in her ears. With every shot she took at the Winter Soldier, she stood her stance firm, grounded and almost statuesque like. Hitting her mark and seeing him fall back, she spun around to take shelter and quickly reloaded her glock pistols. _Where the hell are you Cap?!_

The Winter Soldier slammed his body against the freeway's cement railing and sat frozen for moment while feeling a numbing sensation radiate across his face. The shot didn't fully impact him but ricocheted off his protective glasses, cracking a lens and stinging him for a moment. A surge of anger welled up within him and he yanked the glasses off to reveal a lethal gaze in his eyes.

He quickly sprung to his feet, aiming his rifle directly to the ground below and started firing shots to hit anything and everyone. He ducked again when hearing another round of bullets whiz past him, but this time the shots were coming at a different angle, just ahead of him.

Watching him drop again for cover, Natasha continued pulling the trigger to fire a hail of bullets his way and only stopped when hearing the clicking sounds of the empty chambers of her pistols. Turning to flee, she shielded herself with a row of parked cars and any other attainable object she could crouch alongside to make her escape. It was his turn now, and she found herself being surrounded by spraying bullets that were crashing on windshields, metal, and cement but surprisingly none made contact with her as she ran like a force of nature. She turned her head and quickly glanced at the Winter Soldier, making eye contact with him for a split second, knowing that she was getting away. What she didn't know, was by making eye contact, would be interpreted by him as 'come and get me'.

The Winter Soldier continued firing at the fleeing figure, to realize it was the Black Widow who had been shooting at him, and that she didn't die from her fall off the overpass. He stopped firing when it became apparent he'd have to pursue her on foot. Even though she was making a fast exit, he wasn't going to let her get away that easy. Once he was in pursuit of her, she'd be no match to his tracking skills.

"I have the girl, you find him", he ordered in a Russian tongue to a Hydra agent next to him, just before jumping off the freeway overpass. He landed on both feet on top of a vehicle, smashing in the roof and stomping off it without a single injury. Now in full stalking mode of his prey, he clenched his rifle in one hand and began trailing her exact steps. His number two target, had became his number one.

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Crouching behind a vehicle, Natasha took out her cell phone and hit record, "Taking heavy fire above and below expressway, civilians threaten, repeat civilians threatened. I make an LZ, twenty-three hundred block at Virginia Avenue. Rendezvous two minutes". Once she was done recording her message, she took a long deep breath to calm and gather herself and then slowly looked over the hood of the car. The Winter Soldier was nowhere to be seen but she knew he was coming due to the screams that he left in his wake, which were becoming louder towards her. She clicked the speaker button on the phone and looped the recording, so it would play continuously, and carefully leaned it against the vehicle's tire. Peering around the front end of the vehicle, she made a mad dash to cross the street to a park and hid behind a thick patch of brush. An explosion went off nearby and her breathing became erratic again knowing he was getting closer. In seconds she caught sight of the Winter Soldier approaching in tactical mode and found herself holding her breath.

He didn't hear nor focus on the terrified people that scattered around him in a panic. They didn't in any way distract him and their fear only fueled his objective to eliminate his targets. He slowed, when hearing the Black Widow pleading and sounding desperate, her voice coming just behind several vehicles to the side of him.

She watched as he stopped in the middle of the road with his attention on the sound of her voice, thinking for sure he would detect a trap. To her surprise he knelt down and pulled out a small circular metal ball from the back of his tactical vest, and rolled it under the vehicles towards the direction of the recorder.

Taking several steps back and readying his rifle, he prepared for her to jump out. When she didn't surface and the micro bomb went off, he squinted his eyes from the brightness of the explosion, thinking it was all too easy to eliminate her. Sensing his target down, he turned back towards the direction of the overpass to finish what he started with his main target, Steve Rogers.

Seeing her opportunity, she ran from the bushes and jumped onto the hood of a car in front of him and swung her legs out, kicking the rifle from his hands. She straddled her legs around his shoulders and pulled a zip wire from the sleeve of her jacket, wrapping it around his neck and squeezing her thighs together as he thrashed about. She then pulled her weight backwards to strangle him even harder, making him stumble and slam into the vehicle behind them.

He roughly flipped her over his shoulders, throwing her across the road and watched her body smash against a vehicle, then collapse to the ground. He quickly picked-up his rifle and aimed it at her but she was already getting on her feet and flinging a small disk at him. The device struck his cybernetic arm and an electric shock exploded, knocking his aim off and jolting him for a moment as he shot at the ground. He yanked the still active device off, feeling as if his arm was paralyzed for a moment, and looked up to see her on the run again. Frustrated, he forcefully swung his metallic arm hard in a circular motion, hearing it click into place and was ready for the chase again.

Feeling as though she got some distance from him, she looked back and saw the Winter Soldier still in pursuit, knowing he was never going to stop chasing her. Almost running into a group of bystanders, she frantically motioned for them to get out of the way to the danger that was coming.

"Run - get out of the way! Stay out of the way!"

The crowd reacted to her frantic warning by dispersing in all directions. She heard a single shot ring out and fell to her knees when feeling the bullet penetrate her left shoulder blade. Grabbing her chest, she placed pressure on the exit wound, and slammed her backside on a nearby vehicle, praying that she wouldn't start blacking out. Exhausted and looking around petrified, she couldn't see the Winter Soldier but knew he was close. _'This is it Natasha, end of the line.'_

She turned to the direction of a rifle cocking and saw the Winter Soldier jump onto a vehicle behind her, while staring at her through the scope of his rifle lens, and ready to strike. Preparing for him to shoot, they gazed at each other, the hunter and the hunted, both knowing there was no escape for her this time. Their gaze didn't falter from each other and if she wasn't mistaken, he was taking a little too long to fire. In an instant, something distracted him from pulling the trigger - it was Cap!

She stood weekly to see the two men fighting mercilessly. Both were in a power match to defeat the other and were equals in strength, speed, and combat skills. Fists were flying, as well as knives, guns, Caps shield, and complete utilization of their entire bodies to battle each other. It was a brutal fight that left her speechless and unsure who the victor would be due to the brutality of their exchanging blows.

Looking ahead of her, she spotted the Winter Soldier's rifle on the ground, and desperately limped towards the weapon and picked it up. She fixed it on both men and when the Winter Soldier lifted his knife standing slightly apart from Cap, she pulled the trigger but the weapon didn't fire. To her relief Cap was able to block the knife, making the Winter Soldier pierce the knife into a van and slashing it down it's side as Cap struggled to stop him.

He found himself in a clinch hold by Rogers while being pulled down backwards. He was then flipped over hard to the ground but stood quickly to see his foe retrieving his shield, and in a desperate attempt to finish him off, he charged at him again while swinging his knife. He kicked, punched, and lunged but Rogers was blocking his every move and appearing to be gaining the upper hand when he felt the hard impact of his shield crush into cybernetic arm.

Shaking from the pain of the bullet wound in her shoulder and feeling too weak to hold the rifle, she checked the grenade launcher and seeing it loaded, mustered all her strength to ready it to fire. She watched as the Winter Soldier was knocked to the ground with his mask flying off and hesitated when seeing Cap's shock reaction to the identity of their assassin. She hears the name 'Bucky' from Cap and to their disbelief it's his old friend who supposed to be...dead!

"Who the hell is Bucky?" he asks, but doesn't wait for an answer and aims his gun at Rogers. Suddenly he feels a kick to his backside and finds himself being thrown across the road by someone who's flown in wearing what looks like a a flight suit.

He stands, confused for a moment, hesitating once more on taking down Rogers but snaps out of it and aims his gun at him again. Before he can fire, he hears the familiar whistling sound of the grenade launcher firing and dives out of the way to take cover.

The Black Widow fires at him straight-on and just barely misses Cap. After the smoke and dust settle, the Winter Soldier is nowhere to be seen and to their disbelief he simply vanishes. Closing her eyes and leaning against the van, she drops the rifle, not letting herself collapse just yet. She realizes the fights still not over when seeing several S.H.I.E.D vehicles approaching with their sirens blaring.

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From a safe distance he watches the Hydra agents arrest his targets, knowing he's failed his mission. It was a grave mistake to make the Black Widow his top priority and it would be one he'd pay for soon enough by Pierce and Hydra. But he had other concerns surface in his mind. Like who was Bucky and why did Rogers suddenly seem familiar to him? Equally confounding, why did the sight and scent of the Black Widow give him such a strong drive to chase after her? From the initial 'look' she gave him earlier, to the touch of her body - though aggressive, brought back a familiarity that was provocative, torturous and strangely intimate. Seeing the vehicles disappear down the street, he turned to make his way back to headquarters but stopped and heaved over in pain. Other faces were suddenly coming into focus….faces that tortured him….faces of men in lab suits...who were changing him….who changed who he was….who he believed he was.

"Sergeant Barnes", he whispered, while feeling the pain deepen in his gut by just saying that name. He gathered his strength to stand and slowly headed in the direction of headquarters again. Hydra was the pain and he was drawn to go back there, it was like a beacon calling him home. He was now awake from his sleeping nightmare and it was time to face Pierce. He needed answers before all was lost.

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AN: Please note, I didn't use a beta, so forgive any typos. Reviews are appreciated and I hope you enjoyed reading. CloverX11


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